She blinded me...

...with science!

Recently I updated my own, personal Yahoo! start up page to include news from the AP science wire, because, down deep, I'm a science nerd. So, I was cheered to find that the Cassini spacecraft had found what everyone hoped it would find on Titan. Of course, this wouldn't be one of my posts if I didn't point out my favorite part:

Because Titan is extremely cold—about minus 290 degrees—scientists expected the organic material to condense and rain down to the surface.

And offer a smart-ass comment about it: Frogs are organic material, aren't they? Wow! It rains frogs on Titan!

However, I was less than cheered to hear about the prospect of a renewed battle over teaching evolution in Kansas classrooms. Combine this with Bill Frist's blatant pandering to the religious right and I itch with worry much the way a leper must itch in the beginning stages of the disease, before the realization sets in that this is a serious problem; before, in fact, skin begins to slough and body parts begin to wither and drop off.

The itchy part is the worry that this country—our country, people; mine and yours—is about to become so humorless and high-minded that people can't even watch a movie like Kung Fu Hustle without feeling compelled to warn others not to take it seriously. At the other end of the worry/leprosy scale is the "What the fuck? Where are my legs?" concern that a growing number of people in this country—our country, people—fear that life isn't worth living; that Jesus is coming tomorrow and that earthly concerns such as impending energy shortages and endless wars against ill-defined enemies and equal rights for every single person on this fucking planet are not important when compared to getting right with God and making sure their neighbors are right with him, too, just so no one fucks up their chances of getting swooped up to Heaven before Satan lets his devils have free run of the planet for a thousand years.

I couldn't stand that, folks; that sort of millennial/apocalyptic thinking last cropped up around 1000 A.D., and it didn't quit for a good 500 years or so. You remember reading about that time in history class, don't you? It was called the Dark Ages, and it was marked by plagues, heretic burnings and bloody conflicts. It was the least rational time in Western history, and I don't want to watch it come back around again.

Remember, folks, our problems are ours; we make 'em, we face 'em, we fix 'em. Pray all you want, if you want, but don't make the mistake of thinking some part of intelligent design includes trashing that design just when things get interesting.